


Into the Fold

by shnuffeluv



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Developing Friendships, Friendship, Gen, No Romance, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Post-Episode: ACCEPTING ANXIETY Part 2/2: Can Anxiety Be Good?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-30
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 20:48:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16456961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/shnuffeluv
Summary: Virgil was back, but he still didn't quite feel accepted. Patton was about to change that.





	Into the Fold

Everyone seemed to see him as something that needed to be fixed, and that irritated him to no end. If they couldn’t accept him for who he was, then Virgil could just leave and not come back, ever. Again.

And yet, when he had indeed tried to leave everyone insisted on coming into his room and making him stay. It was kind of nice to feel needed, but then of course, everything had slipped into a sort of state of perpetual forced civility.

Whenever he went to the kitchen to eat something in the Mind Palace, the others might nod to him, say hi or even smile if he was lucky, but then resumed whatever they were doing. Virgil once tried to start a conversation with Logan while the other was reading a book, which had ended in Logan snapping the book shut rather loudly and saying, “I appreciate the fact that you want to converse, but I am currently busy doing research, so if you still wish hold this conversation at a later time, that would be preferable.”

It was hard not to feel unwanted when no one really did anything besides acknowledge that you existed.

Virgil was sitting in his room one day, staring at the ceiling and sighing. He was going over everything he could do,  _should_  do today. He wondered what the point was. Everyone acknowledged that he had a point, he had a purpose. And that was great, that was  _progress_. But when it came down to it, they only wanted the positive aspects of him; the way he made sure Thomas was safe, the way he kept them on their best behavior, and gave them work ethic. They didn’t want the messy, worrying aspect that he was most of the time.

He couldn’t change himself, though. Even if he could, it was never a good idea to model yourself after what others wanted you to be. So he sat in his room, staring at the ceiling, wondering why everyone wanted the good parts of him but not the bad ones, when everyone else was allowed to have a bad side. Roman was prideful and more than a little antagonistic to Virgil. Logan was cold, to the point of showing virtually no empathy. Patton…Patton thought too much with his heart, and didn’t take responsibilities into account nearly enough. But no,  _Virgil_  was the bad guy because he would point these things out, or remind Thomas that he needed to do something at a “bad time”.

There was a knock at his door, and Virgil sighed. Was he needed to kick Thomas back into gear again? “I’m coming,” he grumbled, not wanting to expose any of the other aspects to his room after that first fiasco.

Patton was standing on the other side of his door, bouncing on his toes. “Hey, Virgil, I dunno if this is a bad time or not, but I thought that maybe we could talk a little?”

“Why would you want to talk to me now when I’ve been pretty much ignored for the past week?” Virgil asked, leaning against the doorframe.

Patton winced, and Virgil felt a little bad for being short with him, because, really, Patton made a point of trying to be friendlier to Virgil than the other two ever tried to be. “That’s kinda what I wanted to talk about,” Patton said. “Because, you see, I realized that I might not be appreciating you the way I really need to.”

Virgil frowned. What did Patton mean by that? “Hm?” he hummed.

“Well, uh…I’ve only been acknowledging you when you help Thomas, and less so at other times. And I was thinking about it, how Roman and Logan and I are always talking, even when an idea might not help Thomas or we’re not even needed, but none of us have done that to you. So you probably still felt a little left out, and that’s no good.”

Virgil blinked. Was Patton a mind reader or just scarily good at reading emotions? He was the heart of the whole operation, in a way…“Yeah, it kinda felt like that, but it’s not a big deal. I didn’t expect you all to be best buddies with me the second you realized I could help Thomas.”

“Well, yeah, but we’ll never get to be buddies if we don’t make the effort to get to know you! So I’m making the effort, if that’s, uh, okay with you. I don’t want to, like, crowd into your space.”

Stepping out of his room, Virgil closed the door behind him so hopefully Patton wouldn’t feel more anxiety radiating from it than he already had. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

Patton jumped up and down in his excitement, and dragged Virgil to the living room, fiddling with the TV. “Do you want to watch a movie? What’s your favorite?”

“ _Black Cauldron_ ,” Virgil said with a shrug. “Second favorite is  _The Nightmare Before Christmas_.”

“Ooh, both of those are…” Virgil inwardly cringed as Patton struggled to find words to describe the movies that wouldn’t offend him. “…Nice?”

“They’re not for everyone,” Virgil shrugged off. “You don’t have to say you like them.”

“I’m trying to be positive,” Patton reminded him.

“And you look like you might strain something if you try any harder,” Virgil said. “Look, it’s not a big deal, just knowing you want to make the effort is nice enough, we don’t have to–”

“Greetings, mortals!” Roman crowed, walking into the room. “I am in the mood for watching some more Disney movies, is anyone interested?”

Patton looked like he wanted to say yes, but then he glanced at Virgil and said, “Actually, Virgil and I were just talking about watching movies. If Virgil wants to watch Disney, then that sounds great, but I want to see what Virgil might be interested in right now.”

Virgil was blown away. He had never seen Patton turn down Roman’s offer of watching Disney before.

Roman was surprised too, apparently, because he sputtered, “But…but it’s Disney! How can you say no to that?”

Patton shrugged. “We’ll all be here later to watch it then, too. But right now I’m saying no because it’s Virgil’s turn.”

Roman grumbled and Anxiety felt himself sink into the couch cushions. He didn’t want to cause an argument over what he wanted, that sort of thing never ended well…

Patton sat down next to Virgil, not close enough that they were touching, but close enough to make it clear Patton was on his side and they were doing something together. He pulled up Netflix and looked Roman dead in the eye as he put a hand on Virgil’s shoulder. “We’re watching what Virgil wants to watch right now, in a little bit we can trade and it can be your turn, but it’s Virgil’s right now.”

And when Roman sighed and left, leaving a satisfied Patton and a stunned Virgil to their choice of Netflix, Virgil thought that maybe, just maybe, he was starting to be accepted into the fold.

**Author's Note:**

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